I.J INTRODUCTORY. 27 



psycliology, and inctapliysics; " nor to weign \vi(li calm and 

 frigid impartiality arguments which seemed to them to be 

 fraught with results of the highest moment to mankind, and 

 therefore imposing on their consciences strenuous opposi- 

 tion as a first duty; Cool, judicial impartiality in them would 

 have been a sign perhaps of intellectual gifts, but also of 

 a more important deficiency of generous emotion. 



It is easy to complain of the onesidedness of many of 

 those who oppose Darwinism in the interest of orthodoxy ; 

 but not at all less patent is the intolerance and narrow- 

 mindedness of some of those who advocate it, avoAvedly or 

 covertly, in the interest of heterodoxy. This hastiness of 

 rejection or acceptance, determined by ulterior consequences 

 believed to attach to " Natural Selection," is unfortunately 

 in part to be accounted for by some expressions and a cer- 

 tain tone to be found in Mr. Darwin's writings. That his 

 expressions, however, are not always to be construed liter- 

 ally is manifest. His frequent use metaphorically of the 

 expressions, " contrivance," for example, and " purpose," 

 has elicited, from the Duke of Argyll and others, criticisms 

 which fail to tell against their opponent, because such ex- 

 pressions are, in Mr. Darwin's writings merely figurative — 

 metaphors, and nothing more. 



It may be hoped, then, that a similar looseness of ex- 

 pression will account for passages of a directly opposite 

 tendency to that of his theistic metaphors. 



Moreover, it must not be forgotten that he frequently 

 uses that absolutely theological term, " the Creator," and 

 that he has retained in all the editions of his " Origin of 

 Species" an expression which has been much criticised. 

 He speaks " of life, with its several powers, having been 

 originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms, or 

 into one."" This is merely mentioned in justice to Mr. 

 Darwin, and by no means because it is a position which this 



» Sec Cth edit., 1869, p. 579. 



